Heinz Rühmann

Film journalist and critic Rüdiger Suchsland examines German cinema from 1933, when the Nazis came into power, until 1945, when the Third Reich collapsed. (A sequel to From Caligari to Hitler, 2015.)

Hitler's biography told like never before. Besides brief historical localizations by a narrator, only contemporaries and Hitler himself speak: no interviews, no reenactment, no illustrative graphics and no technical gadgets. The testimonies from diaries, letters, speeches and autobiographies are assembled with new, often unpublished archive material. Hitler's life and work are thus reflected in a unique way in interaction with the image of the society in the years 1889 to 1945.

A group of angels look longingly upon the life of humans. Berlin now is a very different place: unified in name but overrun with crime, corruption, and—in what turns out to be a key theme here—Americans.

Documentary feature about German actor Heinz Rühmann made shortly before his death in 1994.

No synopsis available yet.

1952 in a suburb of New York: the pious Leon Sternberger is a cantor in a small Jewish community. One morning, he realizes that he has lost his faith in God. There is simply too much misery and injustice in this world. His friend Schames Rosen advises him to ask Rabbi Markus in Manhattan for advice. In the subway compartment, a young woman wants to take her own life because she cannot forget December 22, 1942 in Utrecht. That was the day her family was deported. On another train, he meets a man who also cannot forget December 22, 1942. The unusual events are connected in an exciting way and shed new light on the question of God's existence despite all the suffering.

The author Peter Ustinov has called his work "Endspurt" a "biographical adventure". Biographical because the somewhat ambitious but later successful writer Sam Kinsale meets here as a twenty-, forty- and sixty-year-old. The interesting thing about this film, however, is that the four Sams are confronted with each other. The diversity of an eighty-year-old life becomes transparent. At the age of 20, Sam Kinsale loves the young Stella and is determined to marry her. But 20 years later, he is fed up with the marriage and wants to leave her. But he doesn't because she is expecting a child. As a sixty-year-old, he is constantly making compromises both in his work as a writer and in his personal life.

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No synopsis available yet.

Homeless Alfred would like to spend his life on Mallorca. A destination far away. But one day he meets the policeman Erwin.

No synopsis available yet.

Captain Ebbs is an older, experienced seaman who has, however, only sailed on freighters. While his current old barge, the Martin Luther, has to go into the shipyard for an overhaul, the shipping company gives him command of the elegant cruise ship Julia to temporarily replace a colleague who has fallen ill. The rough Ebbs finds his way into his new job only with difficulty and initially puts his foot in his social mouth.

A varied group of passengers boarding a ship bound for pre-WWII Germany represents a microcosm of early-1930s society.

Small time crook Napoleone falls into an unlikely gang made up of a gangster, called The Baron, and his two cohorts, Agonia and The Captain, where Napoleone takes them to Rome where they shack up with a shady used car dealer caled Il Cajella to help finance their new life of crime by planing to rob a statue from the Vatican. But a big-time American gangster, named Joe Ventura, hears about the heist and wants the priceless statue for himself by having his mistress, Samantha, come onto and betray the woman-hungry Cajella to give the statue away to her.

When the First World War breaks out in 1914, Josef Schwejk, a naive dog dealer in Prague, joins the Imperial Army.

Pétepan learns that his money has been lost by Robinhoude brothers.He asks his assistants to withdraw his amount from the bank.

An episodic film, telling four erotic tales: Angela isn't sexually satisfied by her husband, so she simulates sleep-walking to visit her neighbor across the street every night; when his bathtub runs over, shy Peter gets to meet his sensuous neighbor Lolita; at a high-school reunion his former students pull a prank on Prof. Hellberg and make him believe he cheated on his wife while being drunk; Sybill has a good time during a break at the opera with the famous conductor Cramer.

Father Brown is only too happy to interfere with the work of the police in solving tricky criminal cases, usually with resounding success. That's why the clergyman is transferred to a sleepy island called Abbott's Rock. At first, nothing happens there, but somehow Father Brown seems to be attracted to crime: Soon a gang of thieves is up to no good on the island. So Brown makes the headlines again, and is punitively transferred once more. This time he finds himself in a quiet Irish millionaire community.

Willy Loman, a 63-year-old traveling salesman, returns home late at night, exhausted from one of his sales trips, and tells his worried wife, Linda, that he is dead tired and almost fell asleep on the road. The couple is visited by their now-adult sons, 34-year-old Biff and his younger brother Harold, known as Happy. Loman complains to his wife, especially about Biff, who, in his opinion, isn’t doing enough to succeed in his career.

Kurt Hoffmann's remake of his own 1953 movie based on the play by Curt Goetz.

When the wife of Sebastian Schumann left her family, he told his little daughter that her mother has died, because he thought that this was the easiest way for her to accept that her mother is now gone. But this was only the beginning of a lot of lies he tells her continuously, mostly about himself and his job. This way he also tries to hide away from her the fact that he had to quit his job as a traveler and is now paid much less than before.

Max, a small time pick-pocket, has nothing to do with the ‘big’ crimes. But then he must find the murderer of Fred, his wife's brother.

In the midst of World War II, postman Ludwig Fuchs writes a letter to his former school friend Field Marshal Hermann Göring, urging him to work for peace. He is declared mentally incompetent. After the war, he struggles to shake off the stigma of alleged mental illness. Göring is executed. Fuchs forces the court to examine him: he vandalizes the lobby of Post Office 122 in Munich and is rehabilitated (with full salary compensation for lost years).

An extravagant comedy with Heinz Rühmann.

The search for a child murderer drags a once-respected detective into an all-consuming obsession.

After Clown Teddy lost his son, he lost his gift for laughter. He opened a joke shop and lives above the shop. His landlady has had a foster son since birth, and Teddy decides to raise the child, who always believed that Teddy was his father. When the mother suddenly appears five years later and wants her son, Teddy decides to run away with the child and goes back onstage with his son. Will the family catch up with them, or will the mother never get her son back?

A young shoemaker is arrested for stealing a small amount of money, and is jailed for fifteen years. Upon his release, he wants to get a permit to get a job and start anew, but finds that without a job he can't get a permit, and without a permit he can't get a job. Ensnared in the absurd net of Prussian bureaucracy, he can't see any way out. That is, until he enters a thrift shop and spots a Prussian officer's uniform that fits him like a second skin...

Otto Dernburg is forced by circumstances to dress up as a middle-aged woman.

Postman Titus Müller returns from his daily rounds with a letter that will change the course of his modest provincial existence.

Michèle, an employee at the airport, is in love with American pilot Eddie Miller who regularly flies the route from New York to Paris, but problems arise when he is transferred to the Tokyo route. Meanwhile Michèle's uncle Albert who works in the freight department sets out to tackle a drug trafficking outfit.

After many years on the oceans, sailor Hannes Wedderkamp has finally returned to Hamburg. On St. Pauli, Hannes sings songs from the sea in the hippodrome of his best friend Pitter Breuer on the Reeperbahn with the "Quetschkommode" songs and cares for the audience.

Mr. Buchsbaum, third class taxes employee, lives a peaceful life until the new chief immediately criticizes his work. His only confort is his stamps collection. Sadly, even this consolation and his peace are threatened by a new, charming, neighbour who teaches piano. Increasingly infuriated, he discovers accidentally one evening that he has the ability to go through walls. With this power, he decides to settle the scores, firstly with his boss who downgraded him.

Secondary-school teacher Dr. Hermann Seidel is transferred from his sleepy, provincial grammar school to the big city. Here, he has to deal with a class of obstreperous students, where his outmoded teaching methods help him precious little. With the aid of good friends, however, he manages to turn things around, and he soon gets a handle on the students in his very own way…

Margot is looking forward to moving into the old defense tower with her fiancé Lutz, a writer. Then the writer receives the news of his sister's death. Lutz is supposed to take in their children Traudl and Rudi and the dog Leo. Margot did not expect so much attachment...

Emil, a technical draftsman, is hardworking, always helpful, and somewhat shy. Because of these traits, he is often taken advantage of by those around him. Now Emil is set to inherit a supposedly large fortune. His landlady's brother wants to marry him off to one of his relatives. But soon panic and confusion set in. The inheritance consists of three full-grown lions.

Writer Johannes Pfeiffer who goes undercover as a student in a high school after his friends told him that he missed out on a great life experience since he was home schooled.

The young, attractive Inge Wagner becomes acquainted with Herbert Koch during the Berlin Olympics, his flight officer insignia having first caught her eye. Sparks fly immediately between the two and they soon decide to marry. But Herbert is called off on a secret mission in Spain.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

Two dubious characters disguise themselves as Holmes and Watson to gain attention and end up chasing counterfeiters and stolen stamps.

Czechoslovakian opera star Jarmila Novotná plays the title role in the Austrian tunefest "Frasquita". Based on a Franz Lehár operetta, the story is the usual frothy nonsense. Dolly (Charlott Daudert) is engaged to marry Harald (Hans Heinz-Bollmann), but she's really in love with Hippolit (Heinz Rühmann). Harald is likewise enamored of another, namely Frasquita (Jarmila Novotná).

Willy, Kurt and Hans are broke, so they sell their car and open a filling station. Then, they all fall in love with the same girl.

The young wife of a rich old husband is prevented of a fling by a gentleman-burglar, who falls in love to her.

A man in bad sorts hires a burglar to later kill him, then changes his mind when his fortunes turn and must find the contracted murderer before it is too late.

The captain of a battleship of a small Balkan country is fed up with following strange orders from the country's queen.

The likeable and carefree Grand Duke of Abacco is in dire straits. There is no money left to service the State’s debt; the main creditor is looking forward to expropriating the entire Duchy. The marriage with Olga, Grand Duchess of Russia, would solve everything, but a crucial letter of hers about the engagement has been stolen. Besides, a bunch of revolutionaries and a dubious businessman have other plans regarding the Grand Duke. With the intrusion of adventurer Philipp Collins into the Grand Duke’s affairs, a series of frantic chases, plots and counter-plots begins…

No synopsis available yet.

A mousy bank clerk is married to an ambitious woman.

The fast-driving daughter of a car manufacturer keeps Berlin's most pricey lawyer busy as she keeps getting into scrapes.

Heinz Rühmann plays the "model husband" who, when his bored wife threatens to leave him, embarks on an adventurous night.

After the death of his uncle, the owner of the Rhine based Bockelmann Sparkling Wine, Peter turns up for the reading of the will. Justus Bockelmann, a producer of mineral water, is confident he will inherit the business, but ‘for reasons of moral rectitude’ he has no intention of running an ‘alcoholic business’. The opening of the will comes as a surprise to all the potential heirs.

In this German comedy, an enterprising American uncle comes from Chicago goes to the tiny town of Groditzkirchen to make a fortune on credit even though he only has $10 to his name. To do so, he enlists the aide of a bank clerk and begins posing as a millionaire.

The Man Who is Talked About is the overly agreeable Toni Mathis (Heinz Ruhmann), a gent constitutionally incapable of saying the word "no" (or "nein," this being a German picture). Though he'd rather breeze through life without responsibilities or obligations, Toni agrees to study zoology in college because his uncle (Hans Moser) wants him to. Alas, despite the Herculean efforts by Toni's servant Hassler (Theo Lingen) to prepare his master for his final exams, Toni forgets to show up for the finals and is expelled post-haste. In desperation, his uncle arranges for Toni to get married, and once again our hero just can't say no. Trouble is, he falls in love with trapeze artist Bianca (Gusti Huber), whose father won't let her marry anyone except another entertainer. Undaunted, Toni studies a book on show business and tries out for the vaudeville stage, and the picture isn't even halfway over yet!

A classical art junk dealer and an almost bankrupt hairdresser who unexpectedly makes an inheritance go hunting behind thirteen chairs from which of a 100,000 DM contains which the rich aunt has hidden there.

Ruritanian power struggle with opera singing.

August Pipin is a very reliable and loyal cashier who is always level-headed, no matter which trouble faces him. One day that suddenly changes and a fiasco breaks loose.

A poor composer who should buy a property for his ambitious father-in-law finances with the money, nevertheless, an opera. Together with his friend who must play a husband to his strict rich aunt, he makes to himself a fun from the mistakes which cause her feints.

Karl Kramer is a waiter in a beach hotel on the Baltic Sea. But he has completely different plans in mind for the future. Before he marries Grete Wernicke, the daughter of the hotel manager, he wants to have enough money himself.

Peter Ohlsen, a perpetual student, leads a dissolute life and has been living off his filthy-rich father for years. When Peter comes home drunk from a party with his friends yet again, he finds a three-year-old boy in his bed who had been left with his housekeeper along with a letter. The letter states that Peter is the boy’s father and that he is hereby entrusted with the child’s upbringing.